Give Your Brain a Breather
When we talk about rest, most of the time, we talk about downtime when we have time. We talk about resting on a day off or taking an evening off--working hard to earn the rest we deserve. But there is another pivotal moment of rest that few of us take advantage of.
In the middle of a busy day, do you ever just stop? When you have a list a mile long, do you ever hit the pause button? When your brain feels overwhelmed and fatigued, do you just take a few minutes and turn it off? I’m not talking about the kind of scheduled time off or breaks we are most familiar with when we talk about rest. I am talking about stopping, unexpectedly in the middle of the day, for a few minutes to pause, watch cat videos on YouTube, read a blog about gardening, or literally just stare off into space for a few moments.
If someone had explained this to me a few years ago, I would have argued they were wrong and wildly lazy. Because I understood activity as productivity—as long as I was doing something, I was accomplishing something. Guess what? That might not always be true. These pauses I’m talking about are what CEO and business leader Juliet Funt calls “white space”—an intentional and strategic pause in our work or school to think and refocus.
What many of us fail to realize is that constant activity not only creates fatigue physically and mentally, it stifles creativity. And a lack of creativity leads to a lack of productivity. Giving yourself a strategic pause gives your mind space and time to stretch, relax, recalibrate, and reset. It’s actually necessary.
The good news is that this is probably something you are already doing. You likely already spend a few minutes throughout your day letting your mind wander. If that’s the case, great! Now you have a name for it and permission to do it. But still, some of you experience an overwhelming wave of guilt when you’re not busy doing something. Perhaps the thought of such a strategic pause sends you in an anxiety-driven fight or flight mode. If so, take a deep breath and remind yourself that you now have permission to give your brain a breather.
Whatever your view on this intentional moment of silence for your mind, take today and try it. Not as a happy accident, but something you do on purpose for a purpose. Rest doesn’t always look like taking a day off. It comes in these short, everyday breaks too. Today, relax your mind, spark your creativity, create a strategic pause, and give your brain a breather.
Challenges/Points:
Despite what you may have been taught in the past, being busy is not always productive.
Even if you find it hard to do, you need to give yourself permission to give your brain a breather by creating an intentional pause to think and refocus.
Even if you are already taking this kind of break, be sure to do so intentionally to get the most out of it.
Questions:
When you think of not being busy, what goes through your mind? A sense of calm or hysteria?
Have you ever noticed your mind wandering at times throughout the day? What did you do about it?
Next time you find yourself literally doing nothing, how can you take a few minutes and allow your mind to wander instead of quickly stopping yourself to get back to work?
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